Seattle Leaders Want To Join The NHL

It is playoff time for Seattle. Seattle will be rolling out the big guns in a final attempt to leave an impression on National Hockey League owners that Seattle belongs in the league and the league needs Seattle to fill in a hole in the United States footprint in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle investors seem to have locked up some support. Oak View Group which is renovating the old Seattle Civic Center has lined up Boston Bruins’ owners Jeremy Jacobs’ company to provide concessions at the rebuilt arena. Oak View Group has various partnerships with NHL owners. Oak View Group has a concert venue deal with the New York Rangers’ parent company, Madison Square Garden. Oak View Group, along with the Garden, is helping to build the proposed New York Islanders Belmont Park arena. Oak View Group has a partnership in a ticket business with the New Jersey Devils ownership. Vancouver Canucks ownership, which will lose a secondary market if Seattle gets an NHL team, wants a nearby rival.

Seattle has the three necessities for a successful franchise. Government support. It is the 14th biggest TV market in the United States. There is corporate support. The problem is the arena. Oak View Group has the renovation rights but it is still a municipally owned building. Seattle elected officials will not allow Oak View Group to start the reconstruction process until the NHL gives a signal that Seattle is in. That might not come until December. There is a tight schedule for the process if the NHL owners decide to start a team in 2020. The final event in this phase of the building, which underwent renovations to bring it up to state of the art National Basketball Association standards in 1994, will be a basketball game on October 5. For Seattle, the final round of the playoffs has arrived.

Evan Weiner is an author of eight books – https://itunes.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191?mt=11

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